The Kunai Incident
by dk-joy
Summary: Kakashi returns from a mission to discover that Iruka was injured by Naruto during kunai throwing practice. It had happened before and usually only required a few stitches. But why is Naruto too traumatized to speak and Iruka still unconscious? KakaIru
1. Kakashi Comes Home

The Kunai Incident

Warnings and Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Sighs Oh well… This fic will contain Shounen ai/yaoi (established Kakashi x Iruka), language, it's an AU, there's some OOCness, and Naruto is still a genin

"words" speaking

_Words_ thinking

NOTE: I changed the last part of this chapter significantly, so when you see \\\/ it means that this is the point where the major changes occur.

Chapter 1: Kakashi Comes Home

_Maybe I can make it home in time for dinner. I'm sure Naruto and Iruka are about to sit down for some ramen anytime now. Then maybe I can drop a few subtle hints about being tired and needing a backrub and Naruto will leave…then Iruka and I can…_

Kakashi's thoughts were interrupted by the quiet sound of a shinobi's running coming from ahead of him in the forest. He crouched low on the branch he was currently occupying and got ready to jump on whoever it was approaching him. The jounin's breathing slowed and he put all of his concentration into seeing, hearing, and feeling everything that was going on around him. All of his previous (perverted) thoughts forgotten, he was solely focused on finding out who was quickly getting nearer to his current position.

When he recognized the hair and headband of a fellow Konoha ninja, he relaxed and gently dropped down to the ground to greet the man (whose name is unimportant…)

"What's up?" He asked, relaxed façade automatically showing. His hands were now in his pockets instead of near his kunai and his visible blue eye was curved into a charming little crescent instead of narrowed in concentration. People who didn't know him would assume that he was not a threat. They would be wrong.

The man stopped, startled, and then laughed. "Hey, Kakashi! Not much up with me. Just on my way to a mission. A few things are going on in the village, though."

"Oh? Like what?" Kakashi asked, not really interested, but politely listening anyway.

The man explained how a lot of shinobi were complaining about the number of missions lately and how there was a minor break-in at the Hokage's but that it was found to be a prank by a few daring children. Kakashi listened, shifting impatiently. All he really wanted to do was go home to his best friend (and lover), Iruka. No one but the Hokage and a few very trusted friends knew about their relationship, so he couldn't just tell the man to stop talking so he could go get some.

Kakashi was about to rudely interrupt the man's babbling when something caught his attention.

"Say that last part again!" He exclaimed.

The guy blushed. "Umm…my wife and I…"

"No! Before that!" Kakashi urged, annoyed.

"Oh! You mean the part about Naruto and that chuunin teacher of his…"

"Yes! What did you say happened? Something about kunai…" Kakashi trailed off, a little worry showing through.

"Yes. As far as we can tell, the Kyuubi kind of came out of Naruto and attacked that teacher of his…"

"What? Why do you say that?"

"Well it's the only explanation, isn't it? The chuunin…"

Kakashi interrupted, "his name is Iruka." He sounded awfully annoyed that the other jounin didn't know his name and continued to call him 'that chuunin'.

The other guy laughed nervously and continued. "Yes, well…Iruka had six kunai in his chest and it doesn't seem likely that a mere genin was able to put them there, does it?"

"No…it doesn't…" Kakashi said thoughtfully. "But why didn't anyone just ask Naruto? He would tell them what happened, right? Or Iruka for that matter…"

"No one can talk to them."

"…what do you mean?" Kakashi asked, half-scared to know the answer.

"Well Naruto just clammed up. Won't say a word. He just sort of growls at anyone who gets near Iruka. And Iruka…well…"

"And Iruka…what?" Kakashi almost yelled, really fed up with the way the guy always just sort of trailed off in the middle of a sentence.

"He's kind of…unable to speak right now…due to…ummm…unconsciousness." The guy wiped his forehead, which suddenly seemed soaked in sweat, though he couldn't have run more than a few hundred yards. "He uhhh…won't wake up."

"Where is he? He's at the hospital, right?" Barely waiting for the confirming nod, Kakashi ran in the direction of the Leaf Village's hospital. He ignored the staff at the entrance, ripping off his hitai-ate headband and searching with his Sharingan eye for his lover and his student.

He found them shortly on the second floor and his steps faltered as he felt how weak Iruka's chakra was. But he sped up again soon and was outside of the door that read 'Umino Iruka' in no time. He took a deep breath and walked into the door.

The first thing he noticed upon entering was not Iruka's pale body laying on the bed, but Naruto perched at the end of Iruka's of it. His blond head was wrapped in white gauze, which was stained a reddish-brown in some places from dried blood. Naruto was sitting cross-legged on the bed, arms in his lap, though they occasionally lifted to make gestures in the air. His orange jumpsuit was dyed red in some places (also from blood), but other than the head wound, he didn't seem to be injured. Kakashi chose to ignore Naruto for the moment and focus on his koi instead.

Iruka's pale, heavily bandaged body lay on the bed, arms to his sides, but not of his own volition. Straps held his head, neck, arms, and legs still. Kakashi could see that the younger man was trembling slightly, moaning in his sleep, and jerking at odd intervals. The scar that stretched across the middle of his nose from one eye to the other looked dark on the man's white face.

Kakashi was walking forward to brush a piece of hair away from Iruka's eyes when Naruto swiftly swiveled toward him, staring. He looked at his current sensei, barely blinking, before going back to his odd little ritual. Kakashi stopped his advance and watched, curious.

Naruto would look at the wall above Iruka's head, and make a few hand motions. Kakashi recognized them as the motions necessary to throw kunai now that he was paying attention. Naruto would mime throwing kunai toward the wall, looking intently at the same spot, then he would slowly turn around and look at the wall behind him. Throughout this ritual, a look of extreme concentration would be on Naruto's face. Then his face would fall slightly, he would look down at Iruka, then sigh and start over.

Kakashi watched this several times before attempting to walk toward Iruka again. This time, Naruto didn't seem to pay any attention to him. He was just about to brush those strands of hair from his love's face before the door opened and he jerked back.

The Hokage walked in and Kakashi relaxed. Naruto, on the other hand, tensed and stopped moving, swiveling toward the Hokage and snarling.

Kakashi couldn't help the look of surprise that crossed his face, but the Hokage just laughed it off and motioned that Kakashi should follow him.

"Hatake-sensei. Perhaps you would like to speak to me? Ask a few questions?" The Hokage asked politely to the young jounin.

Kakashi nodded, spared one more surprised glance for Naruto, a concerned one for the still-twitching Iruka, and walked out of the door with the Hokage, closing the door gently behind him.

"What's going on? How did…that happen?" Kakashi asked the leader of Konoha.

"I'm not sure myself. It would help, of course, if Naruto or Iruka could talk to us, but alas they cannot."

"And why can't they? What…what happened? As far as you know?" Kakashi asked hesitantly.

"All I know is that when Iruka failed to show up for duty at the mission room at noon today, I sent an assistant to check on him. He called for emergency assistance soon after, and they were both transported here. They were found in Iruka's yard. Both were unconscious. The cause of Naruto's state was obviously the rather nasty head wound he had somehow acquired. Iruka was found face-down in the grass. Two kunai, covered in blood, were found next to him. When he was rolled over, it was discovered that there were four more in his chest. There were two holes where kunai had obviously been pulled out. One of the wounds, the one on his shoulder, was rather…worse than one would expect from a kunai."

"What do you mean, worse?" Kakashi asked.

"It looked more like he had been stabbed, then the knife was… twisted in the wound. We are still trying to figure out what happened, but the doctor here" the Hokage pointed to a man walking toward them rapidly, "may have found some useful information."

"Well?" Kakashi asked the nervous looking young man.

\\\/

"Umm…well…in order to get more information, we need to do a blood test."

"And…" Kakashi prompted impatiently.

"And…umm…right" the doctor looked more nervous at the glare Kakashi had leveled at him. "And…we can't."

"Why not!" Kakashi yelled, causing Naruto to snarl inside the room. Kakashi lowered his voice, but not the intensity of his glare. "Why not?" He asked in a deadly calm voice.

"Because…that! Isn't it obvious! Whenever anyone tries to get near the man, that beast…"

"His name is Uzumaki Naruto, he is a ninja of this village, and you would do well to remember that."

"Ack! Yes, Kakashi-san! Well…Naruto growls and attacks anyone who tries to get near Iruka-san. Two of my nurses are in the ICU because of him!"

"Hn. I'll do it, then." Kakashi answered in a reasonable tone of voice.

"But Hatake-san!"

"He won't attack me. And even if he did, do you really think he would be able to hurt me?"

"But Iruka-sensei…"

"May or may not have been attacked by Naruto. We won't know until we can talk to one of them, will we?" Kakashi glared at the doctor and he relented. He pulled three syringes, some cotton balls, and some alcohol wipes out of the pocket of his jacket.

"We need at least two syringes of blood to complete all of the necessary tests. Three would be optimal. Good luck." With that, the doctor strode several paces away and turned back to watch.

Kakashi accepted the supplies and allowed the Hokage to open the door for him. As soon as the door opened, Naruto growled, but stopped when he saw who it was. He went back to his little ritual. Kakashi walked into the room and noticed for the first time just how much Iruka was twitching and writhing on the bed. He took a few alarmed steps forward, then stopped. As soon as he got within five feet of the bed, Iruka relaxed somewhat, although he was still sweating and twitching.

The Hokage, watching from the door, smiled when he saw this and took a step forward. Naruto immediately started growling. The Hokage took several steps backward, not wanting to further interrupt Kakashi.

When Naruto had started growling again, Kakashi glanced up. He walked back toward the door, an almost apologetic look on his face. He gently closed the door and Naruto immediately went quiet.

When he looked back, Iruka was twisting and writhing worse than ever beneath the straps holding him down. Kakashi ran to his side and Iruka relaxed again, though less than the last time. A tear streaked down Iruka's face and Kakashi gently wiped it away. The jounin smoothed back the sweat-soaked hair that had escaped the chuunin's ponytail and was hanging in his eyes.

Kakashi leaned over, closed his eyes, and placed a gentle kiss on his lover's forehead. The chuunin shuddered and went still. The silver-haired man froze. He opened his eyes and looked down at his lover's pale face. He moved his hand hesitantly toward Iruka's throat and felt for a pulse. He was relieved to feel it strong and steady beneath his fingers. He kissed the man again, this time on the lips. Then he sat back and touched the tip of the scar that ran across Iruka's nose. Iruka turned toward his touch and murmured something too quiet to be heard even as close as Kakashi was. Kakashi flattened his palm against his cheek and Iruka turned further, nuzzling his palm and sighing in contentment.

Kakashi smiled. Then he leaned down and whispered, "This might hurt, koi, but I need to do this so we can find out what happened to you." He swabbed an area on the chuunin's arm, then plunged a syringe into the vein, drawing rich blood. Then he did the same for the other two syringes. Finally, he put a cotton ball against the small puncture wound and asked Naruto to hold it for him. To his surprise, Naruto immediately stopped his pantomime and obediently held the cotton ball against his former sensei's arm.

Kakashi quickly walked back to the door, handed the syringes off to the stunned doctor with a cocky smile, and was about to shut the door when the Hokage stopped him with a few words.

"Kakashi. We think he may have stabbed himself."

Kakashi froze in place. "W-What?"

"The design of one of the kunai didn't match the others. The one that seemed like it had been twisted in the wound. We found a significantly higher amount of Iruka's chakra on that one than on the others. This seems to suggest…"

"There is a reasonable explanation for that and we will find it out as soon as Iruka wakes up."

"He has been placed on suicide watch until…"

Kakashi didn't hear the rest of the sentence. He slammed the door shut and quickly walked back to his lover. He was glad to see that the chuunin was just as relaxed as he had been a minute before.

Naruto was stil holding the cotton ball to the chuunin's arm. Kakashi gently moved his hand and checked for bleeding. It had stopped, so he took the cotton ball away from the genin and put it in the biohazard trash can. When he turned around, he saw that Naruto had his hand on Iruka's cheek and that both of them were smiling. Kakashi smiled and walked toward them.

Naruto looked up at him and said, "why would anyone wanna hurt Iruka-sensei?"

Kakashi, surprised that Naruto had broken his silence, didn't reply.

"What I really wanna know, though, is why there were six kunai in Iruka-sensei's chest when I only had five."

TBC…

Author's Note: Please read and review. I like my idea for where this is going, so please tell me what you think as well!


	2. Naruto's Story

Warnings and Disclaimer: See the first chapter. Also – I know some of the words are probably kind of big for Naruto, but I did warn about OOCness, so…

NOTE: I also changed the first chapter quite a bit, so check it out before you read this one!

Also – I'm going with the Japanese way of making things plural – they don't add anything! So don't say that I need an 's' at the end of my kunai, or I'll throw them at you! (Just kidding…I think…)

Chapter 2: Naruto's Story

"What do you mean you only had five kunai?" Kakashi asked, still surprised that the boy had suddenly started talking to him.

"Well…I'd already thrown the others. That was going to be my last shot."

"…you mean you and Iruka still do Saturday night kunai practice?"

"Yeah! It's kind of a tradition…" Naruto trailed off and looked at Iruka, who had started twitching again on the bed he was strapped to. "I still can't figure out why he did it."

Now they were getting somewhere! "Did what?"

"Stabbed himself. With that kunai I didn't throw."

"Are you sure you only had…" Kakashi stopped and stared at the nodding blond boy. "Wait! He DID stab himself?"

"That's what I said, isn't it?"

"Why would…could you tell the story from the beginning? Please?" Kakashi asked, a hint of desperation in his voice.

"Sure! Maybe you can figure it out!" And Naruto told Kakashi this story…

"Since you were gone, Iruka-sensei took me to out for some ramen instead of cooking. When we finished, we stayed and talked a while but when we walked outside, the sun was still out. When we got home, we decided to start practice early so we could get to bed sooner. Iruka-sensei promised to let me tag along for his Sunday morning run and we could get some ramen before he had to go to the mission room at noon.

"So we went to the clearing in the forest at the edge of the village and practiced. Iruka-sensei was awesome! He taught me how to juggle kunai without getting cut. He said it would help me learn how to catch them better. And it worked! He threw some at me and I caught all of them by the handle! I didn't even get a scratch…

"Next, we threw kunai at trees. We took turns calling out targets for each other and trying to hit the mark. I did OK, but Iruka-sensei kicked butt! Yeah, yeah…I'm getting there…now it was my turn to throw kunai at Iruka-sensei.

"He started by hiding and jumping out at me from random places. He told me to aim for his chest, but I never managed to hit him. He was too fast! Then I had to throw kunai at him while he had to deflect them with chakra or his own kunai. I thought I'd hit him once, but he just disappeared and reappeared behind me. Then he laughed and told me it was time for the last part. He had to stay in one spot and dodge my kunai without lifting his feet off of the ground. By that time, I was too tired to do much, so when Iruka-sensei saw that I only had five kunai left, he told me to throw them all at once and then we could go back to the house and get some sleep.

"This is where it starts getting weird. I got ready to put everything I had into that throw. I closed my eyes and concentrated on a mental picture of my target, just like Iruka-sensei had taught me. I let some of my chakra flow into the kunai, making sure it was evenly distributed among them. I took a deep breath and opened my eyes. I looked into Iruka-sensei's eyes, saw him nod, them I looked at his chest. I breathed out and threw the kunai. It was a perfect throw and I could feel it. But something was wrong. I felt it right after the kunai left my finger tips. Iruka-sensei wasn't dodging. He just stood still and watched them come toward him. All five kunai hit him. He didn't even blink. Just stood there. Then I saw that there was a sixth kunai.

"After a few seconds, he seemed to snap out of it, but he still stood still. He stared at a spot over my shoulder. I followed his line of sight, but couldn't see anything. After about a minute, he relaxed. Then he winced and looked down at the kunai. There was quite a bit of blood, but I knew he'd had worse injuries. I was about to suggest that we go to the hospital, but didn't 'cause he did something weird. He closed his eyes and passed his hand over each of the kunai. He went over the ones I threw quickly, but stopped over the sixth. The one near his heart.

"He opened his eyes and looked at it. He touched the handle and winced. He kept his hand near it as he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Then he exhaled loudly and yanked it out. It hadn't been bleeding much before, but now it was bleeding pretty heavily. He stayed standing for a moment with his eyes closed, his face turning pale before he dropped to one knee. He finally looked up at me.

"Do you know what he said? You'll never believe it! He asked, 'do you have a kunai?' Then he looked down at himself and said, 'never mind.' He even kind of chuckled! Then he pulled out the one that was near his right lung, causing more bleeding. He barely even blinked. He looked up at me again and said, 'turn away, Naruto-kun.' I shook my head and he shrugged.

"That's when he stabbed himself. The blade was parallel to the ground. Then he twisted it. He…gasped your name when he did it, Kakashi-sensei. Blood was gushing out all over the place. Then he pulled it out, stabbed, and twisted again. He made a choking sound and fell face-first onto the ground.

"The last thing I remember is running toward Iruka-sensei. I heard a noise behind me and turned around. Then my head hurt really bad and I woke up in the hospital earlier today. I asked where Iruka-sensei was and came here. I've been trying to figure it out ever since then. Do you have any ideas, Kakashi-sensei?"

"Hmm… you threw five, but there were six in his chest. He stood still and didn't do anything. Then he…stabbed himself. Anything else important you'd like to add?"

"Umm…no. That sums it up pretty well, actually."

"OK…but that still doesn't explain why you've been growling and attacking people all day."

"Well…I don't know how this happened and I wanted silence so I could think about it. And Iruka-sensei needs his rest – they were bothering him! He moved more when they were in the room!"

"…so why didn't you attack me?" Kakashi asked.

"You love Iruka-sensei almost as much as I do! I know you would never purposely hurt him. He relaxed a lot when you walked into the room, and even more the closer you got! And if you ever did hurt him, killing you would be just one more stepping stone in my quest to become Hokage!"

"Er…OK…what do you think about all of this, Iruka?"

"Huh!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Hehe…can't fool you can I, Kakashi?" Iruka answered weakly.

"How long have you been listening?" Naruto asked suspiciously.

"Um…around the time you were talking about ramen for dinner." Iruka answered.

"Urk! You mean the whole time! And you didn't say anything?" Naruto yelled.

"Hehe…sorry about that. I just wanted to hear your version of the story, Naruto-kun."

"So how does his story compare to yours?" Kakashi asked.

"Umm…it's pretty close, but he didn't see the whole picture…"

TBC…

Author's Note: Sorry it's kinda short! Please read and review! Good reviews make me smile and smiling authors post quicker!


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